Stranger Fruit

Never one who is afraid to paint with a very broad brush, Ben Stein gives us this gem (from a Christianity Today interview):

I believe God created the heavens and the earth, and it doesn’t scare me when scientists say that can’t be proved. I couldn’t give a [profanity] whether a person calls himself a scientist. Science has covered itself with glory, morally, in my time. Scientists were the people in Germany telling Hitler that it was a good idea to kill all the Jews. Scientists told Stalin it was a good idea to wipe out the middle-class peasants. Scientists told Mao Tse-Tung it was fine to kill 50,000,000 people in order to further the revolution.

Somebody should inform Stein that it is scientists who developed the life-saving techniques and drugs that he will need should he ever have a heart attack or develop cancer. And that whole polio thing? Scientists as well. I could go on …

(HT to Glenn Branch for the interview transcription)

Comments

#1 Joel
March 28, 2008

Ben has managed to pin the greatest inhumanities of modern times on science. Who could have known that scientists had all that power over Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung.

Truly amazing.
#2 Nelson Muntz
March 28, 2008

Hmm. American scientists said it was a good idea to kill the Nazis and the Japanese. Would Ben Stein have advised the Allies to eschew antagonism?

Or perhaps Ben Stein is a rube sophist?
#3 Bubba Sixpack
March 28, 2008

Ben Stein is losing it. Sad watching him go over the edge.
#4 Todd
March 28, 2008

Which scientists, Ben? Lysenko? BZZZZZT!!!! Wrong answer.
#5 Badger3k
March 28, 2008

Don’t forget – the scientists told the Romans to kill Jesus. Damn scientists.
#6 Tyler DiPietro
March 29, 2008

Science made me do it!
#7 Mike the Mad Biologist
March 29, 2008

If we’re so powerful, why is it so hard to get funding?
#8 Andrew
March 31, 2008

Mike, it’s not. Scientists just claim that in order to generate sympathy and throw people off the case, it’s all part of the conspiracy.

I fear the black helicopters are on their way for me already.
#9 Science Avenger
April 8, 2008

Here’s a Ben Stein quote worth mining:

“If Darwinism is correct, and if we’re all just accidents, and if we’re all just haphazard descendants of a mud puddle, then Hitler was right. And Hitler was totally right; You can kill six million Jews, it has no moral significance at all, any more than wiping mud off your shoe would have.”

Anti-Semite? You be the judge. Personally I’d like to see this quote attached to everything on the internet that has Stein’s name on it.